Eclectic Parent

Having been asked by two different people on the same day how I found the homeschool support groups I belong to, I thought I’d post about it. Personally I can’t image not having a homeschool support group, whether formal or informal. Homeschooling is far more popular in some areas of the United States than others. […]

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“‘A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare,’ the judge wrote . . .”
Eeeek! Sounds more than a little Orwelian to me. Nothing about the betterment of the person or gaining […]

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NPR just ran a piece on the importance of unstructured play for children. The concept is often discussed in attachment parenting circles and certainly by the proponents of unschooling, but it was nice to hear it covered by mainstream media. The idea is given lip service relatively often in the mainstream populace - ‘children learn […]

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So today is President’s Day. It isn’t something we really pay attention to, but I had planned on heading to the library with the kids today and remembered it was closed. So I started thinking of all the other outings we could have. We used to do a weekly field trip with friends but one […]

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Riding in the back of a taxi in Cancun, Mexico in December, we discussed the idea of new year’s resolutions with D (C and B were in a separate taxi with aunt Lizzie and Uncle Tom).  D said he wanted to learn to read this year. Pretty good goal. Daddy is trying to give up […]

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I have a friends who has a collage degree in fiber arts. Not fine arts, but fiber arts. She talks about how crafts must be both artistic and useful; that is what distinguishes them from decorative arts. Gorgeous, complex quilts, for instance, are still intended to be used. Crafts are fantastic for kids for that […]

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A fantastic conglomeration of blog entries on unschooling, Unschooling Voices comes out monthly. Whether I am presenting an opportunity to expand one’s view of unschooing or showing how lazy I am by merely posting a link to another’s website that I didn’t get around to writing a blog entry for is merely a matter of […]

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Interrupting my next planned blog about our second week in Mexico, just to keep up with real life. Most of our free time since returning has been spent trying to get some of our 2000 photos sorted and uploaded to flickr; the first three days of vacation are now in our gallery on the blog […]

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Chichen Itza: ancient Mayan city in the Yucatan Peninsula. Known for it’s large amazing Mayan pyramids and temples, we will probably best remember Chichen Itza for the people we met while staying nearby.
Poor C evidently caught his brother’s illness and started vomiting in the night. The difference between the two is that one is rarely […]

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Having finally finished the tote bags for the craft swap, I commented that the problem with projects like this is that about the time you really start to get the hang of things you are done. So with the sewing machine and serger still out on the dining room table, I decided to make […]

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